Linux distributions on ia64 uses a different file table format than on i386, called GPT instead of MBR. The fdisk command used by mindi/mondo to determine all aspects related to the disc hasn't been adapted yet to handle GPT. Only the parted command is able to do it.

So a perl script called parted2fdisk.pl was written that will take as input all the order that mindi/mondo pass to fdisk, translate them to be given to parted and print the result in fdisk format. So this is a filter allowing fdisk replacement. It's only used on ia64. On other archs, parted2fdisk is a link to fdisk.

This will produce a binary version that will be used by mondorestore during the restoration process on ia64 to handle the GPT format. (Note again that on ia32 parte2fdisk is in fact a link to fdisk to avoid any compatibility issue)